Suture materials are generally packaged in a sterile manner in a foil or a combination of foil and film, foil and paper, paper and film and the like. The sutures may be packaged as single sutures or as a plurality of sutures and they may packaged with or without needles attached. Dispensers for such suture materials or similar packages are well known. One dispenser which has gained wide acceptance for dispensing suture packages is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,405,044. While this dispenser has wide acceptance, its design has not lent itself to automatic carton making and, hence, has been somewhat costly.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a suture package dispenser that allows for verification of the quantity of suture packages in the box. It is a further object to provide a dispenser that is constructed in a stable manner and minimizes the amount of the dust or other contaminants that may accumulate on the packages in the dispenser. It is an object of the present invention to provide a dispenser that may be produced by automatic equipment. It is a further object of the present invention to reduce the cost of providing suture package dispensers.